


Bitten By The Werewolf Bug

by magicsophicorn



Series: Three's not a crowd (until the Charmings arrive) [10]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-04 00:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5312603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/pseuds/magicsophicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma, Ruby and Regina are summoned to the Principle's office when their (non-werewolf) daughter begins biting her friends, trying to turn them into werewolves. (Written for Red Swan Queen Week, Day 1 - Bitten)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bitten By The Werewolf Bug

Emma fidgeted nervously in her seat. This was a feeling and location she was very used to. That didn't seem to make it any easier though, even despite the 20 years or so since she had last been in this position.

Regina placed a hand on her knee and Emma realised she had been tapping her foot.

"Relax, Emma. You're not in trouble," Regina murmured.

Logically Emma knew she was right, but she couldn't do anything about what she was feeling. Here she was, a fully grown adult with a job and a family and everything, and she was back sitting outside the Principle's office.

Her mind couldn't help but drift back to all the times she had been there as a kid. For fighting, stealing, drinking, you name it. She knew she wasn't that person anymore, but sitting there she just couldn't shake the feeling that she was about to get punished.

Just then Ruby hurried round the corner of the school corridor towards them.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to find someone to cover my shift," she said as she sat down on the other side of Emma. "Have you been in yet? Do we know what this is about?"

Regina shook her head and Emma felt her foot start tapping again. Regina's grip on her knee tightened.

"Why don't you go home Emma?" Regina said softly, "Ruby and I can handle this one. It's obviously making you uncomfortable to be here."

Emma clenched her jaw. She would really, _really_ , like to get the hell out of there, but then she knew she needed to get over her past, and she was never going to be able to do that if she just ran away.

"No I should stay, I probably need to get used to this. I doubt this will be our only visit here… The girls are related to me after all…"

Regina glared at her and Emma finally managed to crack a smile. As if Regina didn't know that their girls were the very definition of "a handful".

Before Regina could make any kind of rebuttal, the door to the Principle's office opened and the frazzled looking face of Miss Honey appeared around the door frame.

"Ladies, please come in, we're ready for you now."

"Why does a kindergarten even have a Principle?" Emma muttered as they all stood and shuffled through the door into the tiny office.

"Would you prefer the kids to run the place?" Regina muttered back, and Emma could pretty much hear the smirk in her voice even though she couldn't see her face.

After they had all managed to squeeze into the chairs provided (two adult sized, one child sized - they clearly weren't used to poly parents - and of course Emma took the child sized chair, just to really add to her feelings of déjà-vu about the whole thing), Miss Honey cleared her throat.

Only then did Emma notice their youngest daughter, Isabella, sitting on a little chair of her own off to the side of the room and looking down at her hands.

"I asked you here today to talk about Isabella's behaviour," Miss Honey said, pushing her glasses up her nose from where they had slid down, "I have already spoken to Isabella about this and am confident that she now understands that this behaviour is unacceptable in school. However I thought that you all should be made aware of the situation so that you can have whatever conversations you deem necessary given… the uniqueness… of your family."

Emma was dreading finding out what Isabella had done. The kid had magic for crap's sake, it could be anything. Although knowing Isabella it would probably have been an accident. The kid might be a handful but she wasn't often deliberately naughty, she just had no clue when she was doing something wrong half the time. She was always very apologetic whenever they pointed out why she shouldn't do something, which definitely explained her current posture.

Miss Honey sighed and pushed her glasses up her nose again.

"Isabella has been biting her friends, saying she is turning them into werewolves..."

Miss Honey glanced at Ruby as she said it, as if she expected her to turn into a wolf right then and there and blow her office down or something.

"As I said," she continued nervously, "I have explained that biting is unacceptable behaviour, but thought it best to allow you to speak to her about… the other part."

Miss Honey stood and hurried to the door before anyone could think of anything to say.

"I'll give you all a few minutes to talk," she said and then left the room, closing the door behind her quickly.

There was a moment of silence in which the three women just looked at each other, before Regina finally spoke.

"Bella-bear, come over here darling."

Isabella slipped off her chair and shuffled over to Regina, not looking up at any of them. When Isabella reached her, Regina lifted her up and sat her on her lap, stroking her hair softly.

"Is that true Bella, did you bite people?"

Isabella nodded slowly, still not looking anyone in the eye.

"And why did you do that?"

Isabella began pulling at her fingertips as she often did when she was feeling guilty.

"I wanted them to be wolves too. It fun when Momma and Lili be wolves. I wanted to play with my wolf friends too."

Emma tried really hard not to laugh, or melt, or anything like that. It was just so adorable.

Regina and Emma both looked to Ruby to respond.

Ruby sighed and lifted Isabella from Regina's lap over onto hers.

"Bella I'm glad that you like playing with me and your sister when we're wolves, but you need to understand that not everyone wants to be a wolf, and it's not okay to change someone into one when they don't want to be. Does that make sense?"

Isabella nodded, but still looked sad.

"Why they not want to be a wolf?"

Oh boy, now there was a loaded question.

"Because some people are scared of wolves. Wild wolves are scary remember? You know you don't go near any wolf that isn't me or your sister right?"

Isabella nodded again, and Emma could practically see the little gears turning in her brain as she tried to get her head around the idea that not everyone thought being a werewolf was as awesome as she did.

"Besides Bella," Ruby said, kissing the top of her head, "you can't turn people into wolves if you're not a wolf."

Emma almost said something about being able to do it by magic, but she managed to stop herself at the last moment. It probably wasn't a good idea to put that idea in Isabella's head after all.

"Are you mad at me? I sorry I bited people," Isabella asked, her voice tiny and sad.

Emma's heart clenched painfully in her chest at their daughter's words. She couldn't help but think back to all the times she'd been in trouble as a kid, when she'd known without a shadow of a doubt that her foster carers were mad at her. She'd often had the bruises the next day to prove it.

"Of course we're not mad at you Bella-bear," Emma said, before Regina or Ruby could reply, "you didn't realise it was bad, and now you've said sorry to everyone you bit, and you're not going to do it again right?"

Isabella nodded enthusiastically and Emma smiled.

"Come and give me a cuddle," she said.

Isabella jumped off of Ruby's lap and ran over to Emma, jumping up onto hers. Emma squeezed her tightly.

"I love you Bella, no matter what," she whispered into her daughter's hair.

When she looked up Emma could see understanding in Ruby and Regina's eyes, and once again she was beyond grateful for these two women who could love and understand her so well.

The sound of the door opening and Miss Honey re-entering the room broke the moment.

"Have you had time to talk?"

Regina stood, her mayoral mask falling into place over the soft and loving woman she had been only moments before.

"Yes thank you Miss Honey. We have spoken to Isabella and we're confident that this won't be an issue again in the future. Thank you for calling us."

Regina held out her hand and Miss Honey shook it, looking relieved that she hadn't been incinerated or eaten.

"Well then I think it's time Isabella went back to class. If you ladies are alright to see yourselves out, I'll take Isabella back to her classroom."

Regina nodded and Miss Honey held out her hand to Isabella. She jumped off Emma's lap and ran to take it with a beaming smile. 

"I going to do colouring," she said happily as Miss Honey led her out of the office.

As soon as they were alone Regina turned to Emma, her face soft once more.

"Are you alright Emma?"

Emma suddenly found herself fighting tears.

"Yes, I… Thank you. We… We're good parents, right?"

In an instant she was pulled to her feet and embraced by both Ruby and Regina.

"We are," Ruby whispered, "don't worry Emma. Bella, Lili and Henry have never and will never have to feel like you did as a kid, we'll make sure of that."

The tears fell then. That was all she wanted for her children. That they would grow up feeling safe and loved. She was so glad that she had Ruby and Regina to help make that happen.

"Thank you," Emma sobbed, "I love you."

"We love you too."


End file.
